Winterize Your Irrigation System

Winterizing your irrigation system before the first freeze. If you do not winterize your sprinkler / irrigation system, you run the risk of cracking pipes, hoses and equipment. In order to winterize, all of the water needs to be blown out of the system using an air compressor. Even the largest store purchased air compressor may not be powerful enough to blow out all of the water from the entire system, so you most likely will need to do this zone by zone. You can rent a 10 cubic feet per minute air compressor from your local hardware or tool rental center such as Home Depot or Lowes.

Although you can do this yourself, it is always recommended that you hire a professional sprinkler irrigation company like Andy’s to winterize your system for you.

Winterize Irrigation System Instructions

First for rigid PVC pipes, set your air compressor regulator to maximum 80 psi and for flexible polyethylene pipes set it to 50 psi. Next, turn your water off and set your system timer to open the first zone. Then, if you have a manual drain valve for the zone, open that drain valve. Now you can connect the air line from the compressor to the blow-out port. Connect the other end to the hose to the air compressor and turn the compressor on to blow the water out of the line. When you do this, the sprinkler heads should pop up and spray out water. As soon as the water stops flowing out, turn off the compressor. This is very important because if the compressor runs too long, the heat can melt the lines quickly. Move on the next zone and on and on until the system is all blown out. Then repeat the process one more time.